When I heard the new Star Wars movie was going to be out this week I knew it was time to take advantage of their love for Star Wars. Star Wars math? Check! Star Wars writing? You bet. And maybe when we’re done we will see a Star Wars movie! This is a kind of…
Have you ever seen the way a kids eyes light up when you ask them to be a detective? I’ll admit, I use this technique much too often. It’s losing it’s steam. But when something is lost (especially if it’s something of mine…) we all become detectives. We go all out and get on our…
Holidays are stressful. Not bad stressful, but stressful none the less. I don’t know about you, but when I feel stressed, nothing gets done. And that’s all fine and dandy unless you’re responsible for teaching children! A few off days are okay but I cannot just ditch the entire month of December. We’ve discussed Christmas…
Christmas time means busy, busy, busy – right? Is it just me? We don’t even start shopping for presents until later in the month but we are just busy. There are so many events and exciting things in December. We always end up slacking off school a bit in December and we do “Christmas school”…
We love making math hands on and the counting mats have been such a hit! Now that we’re working with larger numbers, I wanted to make a version of the counting mats with two 10-frames! We need to practice counting all the way to 20! And thus, the addition mats were made. They can also…
Do you try to introduce concepts well before necessary so it doesn’t seem like such a new topic? I’ve noticed this trend and I really like it. Royal (7) just started multiplication – a very very basic multiplication. But this way, when he really needs to learn it, it won’t be this completely new concept. …
Have you ever taken one of those “Can you name the 50 states” types of tests? Did you do well? I’ve always enjoyed geography, and for the most part, I’m pretty good at naming the states and capitals, and being able to locate the states. I even know that Alaska is in fact up…
We hit a wall in math. It happens – walls, I mean. There are some subjects that you just hit a wall (mine was chemistry in school). But what I’ve learned since becoming a homeschooler, is that there are ways around every wall. Up, down, around, through – there are many many ways to break…
Do you ever get that warm feeling, the small smile, when you suddenly encounter a memory from your childhood? When I was a kid, one of my mom’s favorite movies was Dave. There is one scene where Dave (the President) visits a school and the class is showing off an activity called Poor Joe. Joe…
Do you ever take a break to focus on one subject? We’re taken a break right now to focus on memorizing math facts. It’s been something we’ve worked on but right now we are focused on that. The holidays tend to mean less learning anyhow, so I thought I’d make a more manageable goal for…
Sillyness wins in our house, how about yours? Anything silly and funny is hit and easily aids the learning process. My kids are as silly as they come and it’s a good thing, because they have very silly parents. So when we can do a silly exercise and call it school work and educational, we’re…
As we continue to work on new ways to practice letter sounds, I keep thinking about how important learning phonics can be to a beginning reader. They need all the extra review to make sure they can read letter sounds quickly. Otherwise, sounding out words becomes very challenging. So we will practice, practice, practice and…